Commingled recyclables recovery and recycling process and related apparatuses

ABSTRACT

An improved method of recovering recyclable materials from commingled recyclables is described as well as apparatuses for doing same. Ferrous materials recovery is achieved using the unique combination of a magnetic belt and a vibratory conveyor. Other materials are then separated with a light/heavy separator which uses finger screen, air knife, and vibratory means to separate glass from plastics and aluminum prior to conventional handsorting operations. Excess glass unsuitable for recovery is introduced into a trommel processing loop wherein contaminates are removed and the glass reduced to a particulate useful in the production of glasphalt and aggregate. Air emanating from the air knife is filtered in an improved gravity separator for reintroduction to the light/heavy separator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The problem of disposing of municipal solid wastes is rapidlyapproaching a state of crises as communities throughout the UnitedStates find themselves faced with a rapidly shrinking number ofavailable landfill sites. It is estimated that Americans dispose of 160million tons of solid waste each year, of which about 80% is dumped intolandfills, 10% incinerated, and the remainder recycled.

Many local governments are encouraging or even mandating that homeownersseparate their trash in an effort to increase the percentage of recycledwaste. Despite efforts to induce the public to separate trash intoplastic, glass, metal, paper and other components, the great majority ofmunicipal waste is commingled. There exists a need, therefore, for aprocess to rapidly and efficiently separate and recover commingledmunicipal waste into commercially pure and valuable components.

It is old in the art to use magnetic means to remove ferrous materialsfrom a waste stream and handpicking means to separate different coloredglasses and plastics. The instant invention combines these methods withmechanical processes to form a unique system of separating glass,plastics, aluminum cans, and ferrous materials at the highest rate andpercentage of materials recovery now available. Prior art recyclingplants typically process four to five tons of commingled municipal wasteeach hour. The preferred embodiment of the present invention processesapproximately twenty-five tons per hour and can be easily refitted toprocess substantially more tons per hour.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of the basic recovery process.

FIG. 2 depicts a schematic diagram of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts a cross-sectional side-view of the light/heavy separator.

FIG. 4 depicts a cross-sectional side-view of a gravity separator.

FIG. 5 depicts a cross-sectional top-view of dual gravity separators.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of this invention to provide a process of rapidlyrecovering economically valuable products from a cornmingled wastestream.

It is a further object of this invention to reduce the need foravailable landfill sites and incinerators as means of disposing ofwaste.

It is a further object of this invention to mechanically separateferrous materials, plastics, glass, aluminum and light materials priorto subsequent handpicking operations.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a process forproducing aggregate glass particulate suitable for commercial uses, suchas glasphalt paving.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring to FIG. 1, commingled waste is dumped onto a tipping floor 1and is pushed onto a steel apron conveyor 2 by a payloader and iscarried to a non-magnetic stainless steel vibrating conveyor 3. A beltmagnet 4 suspended above the vibrating conveyor picks up ferrousmaterials and dumps them onto a transfer conveyor 5 which deposits theferrous material to a ferrous storage bin 6.

The vibratory conveyor is chosen to transport the material beneath thebelt magnet for two reasons. First, the conveyor's vibratory actionpresents to the magnet a one layer thick mat of cornmingled recyclables.This unique part of the facility removes +99% of all ferrous items inthe process stream with extremely low contamination from other materialsinterposed between the belt magnet and ferrous items. Secondly, thevibrating conveyor has a very small profile enabling it to beconveniently placed beneath the belt magnet. The vibratory conveyor wasmade from non-magnetic stainless steel, otherwise in a very short timethe vibratory conveyor would become magnetized and hamper theeffectiveness of the magnet's strength.

The remaining waste stream of nonferrous material 7 is introduced into alight/heavy separator 8 which splits the waste stream into foursubstreams 9, 10, 11 and 12.

The first substream 9 comprises small broken particles of glass. Theseare separated by use of a self-cleaning vibrating finger screen and arecarried along by a transfer conveyor 15 to a glass fragment conveyor 16.This comprises a step of splitting off from the waste stream aparticulate substream comprising small glass particles by passing thewaste stream over a grating, defining apertures of a size effective inallowing the small glass particles to fall through the same. As shown inFIG. 2, these particles are transported by conveyors 15 and 16 to glasscrusher 35 which serves as glass crushing means. Here it meets thefourth glass sub-stream carried by conveyor 16 which is crushed alongwith it.

The second substream 10 comprises glass fragments too large to have beendiverted to the first substream 9 as well as bulk glass, mostly wholebottles. These are transferred by an idler conveyor 27 to a variablespeed hand sorting conveyor 28. At this conveyor hand-sorters separateflint, green, and amber glass onto three separate glass conveyors 29, 30and 31 which transfer the separated glass to separate storage bins 32,33 and 34. Any glass fragments remaining are transferred to the glassfragment conveyor 16. Other dense material, such as stray non-magneticmetals, may also appear in this substream.

The third substream 11 comprises bulk light materials, predominantelyplastic bottles and aluminum cans. These are transferred to a variablespeed handpicking conveyor 17. Natural and colored high densitypolyethylene, polyethylene terepthalate (PET), aluminum, and mixedplastics are manually removed and separated into storage bins 18, 19,20, 21 and 22. The excess is stored in a waste bin 23.

The ferrous 6, aluminum 21, and plastics storage bins 18, 19, 20 and 22are sloped toward a baler feed conveyor 24. Each bin has a door which,when opened, allows its material to fall on this conveyor and betransported to a baler 25 which compacts the material into bales 26. Thecontrols for operating the bin doors are under the control of the baleroperator.

The fourth substream 12 comprises the lightest particles of all thesubstreams. Carried by a powerful flow of air are paper, plastic filmflakes and fragments of aluminum and plastic, and any other ultra lightmaterials. These are conduited to a gravity separator 13 where theysettle out of the air stream for storage. "Clean" air, containing onlysuperfine ultralight particulates, emanating from the gravity separatorenters an air pump 14 and is reinjected into the light/heavy separator.By "clean", it is meant that the air carries no particles capable ofdamaging the air pump.

Glass fragments on the glass fragment conveyor 16 are transferred to aglass crusher 35. Glass particles formed by the crusher are transferredvia a conveyor 36 to a trommel 37. Particles small enough to passthrough the trommel screens fall through a chute 47 onto a conveyor 38and are sent to a glass aggregate bin 39. In the preferred embodiment,these glass aggregate particles are at the correct gradation for use inglasphalt production.

Glass particles too large to pass through the trommel walls exit thetrommel and fall off a chute 46 upon a conveyor 40. A vacuum system 41collects stray light material such as bits of paper, plastic, andaluminum and delivers them to waste storage 42.

The remaining oversized glass is conveyed via conveyor 40 to a secondglass crusher 43. The recrushed glass is then conveyed via conveyor 44back onto conveyor 36 as indicated by flow arrow 45 and remains in thetrommel-vacuum-No. 2 crush-trommel loop until it is broken down to anacceptable particle size of 1/2 inch or less.

FIG. 2 shows a preferred embodiment in which dual light/heavy separatorsare used. This schematic depicts an actual plant now in operation inWestbury, Long Island under the management of Omni Recycling ofWestbury, Inc. This embodiment processes approximately twenty-five tonsof cornmingled recyclables every hour.

Commingled recyclables from the tipping floor are carried on steel apronconveyors 2a and 2b to vibrating conveyors 3a and 3b. Belt magnets 4aand 4b lift ferrous materials off of the vibrating conveyors and depositthem on a transfer conveyor 5 which deposits the material in the ferrousstorage bin 6.

Nonferrous materials continue to the light/heavy separators 8a and 8b.Waste streams comprising small glass fragments are deposited by thelight/heavy separators onto a transfer conveyor 15 as described abovewith regard to FIG. 1.

Large glass fragments and whole bottles are deposited on idler conveyors27b and 50. The latter conveyor transfers its load to another idlerconveyor 27a. The idler conveyors 27a and 27b deposit their loads ontovariable speed handsorting conveyors 28a and 28b. Each handsortingconveyor has a team of handsorters to separate flint, green, and amberglass Just described above with respect to FIG. 1.

Plastics and aluminum are deposited by the light/heavy separators onto abelt chain type conveyor 51 and thence to the variable speed handpickingconveyor 17 where the various types of plastics and aluminum arehandsorted as described above with respect to FIG. 1.

The belt chain type conveyor 51 has an extended port ion 52 that extendsinto the glass handpicking work area. Stray plastics and aluminum thatsomehow make their way to either of the variable speed handsortingconveyors 28a and 28b are removed by hand and deposited on the beltchain type convey or 51 .

Dual air streams 12a and 12b, dual gravity separators 13a and 13b, anddual air pumps 14a and 14b function as described above with respect toFIG. 1 .

Excess glass that is not suitable for sorting falls upon the aggregateidler conveyor 16 and is transported to the first glass crusher 35.Crushed glass emanating from the first glass crusher enters a processingloop which begins with a first loop idler conveyor 36 which deposits theaggregate into a trommel 37. In the preferred embodiment, the trommelhas 5/8" holes in its walls. This permits bits of glass predominately3/8", but no larger than 1/2" to pass through the trommel walls and fallupon an idler conveyor 38 which carries the aggregate through the wallof the plant and dumps the aggregate in an area accessible to trucks andfront-end loaders.

Fragments too large to pass through the trommel walls are deposited upona second loop idler conveyor 40. A vacuum hood 41, suspended over thearea where the aggregate exits the trommel, vacuums away aluminum bottlecaps, paper labels, tamper-proof rings, corks, and the like which arereleased from the glass during the crushing and trommeling operations.This flow of air and fragments is blown by a vacuum pump 54 through aconduit and out through the wall of the plant into a specializedcontainer. Ferrous materials are also occasionally released. Hence, asmall magnetic belt 55 and idler conveyor 56 are used to remove thesematerials from the processing loop.

After vacuuming and magnetic extraction, the second idler conveyor 40 inthe loop deposits its load into a second glass crusher 43. Aftercrushing, the aggregate emanating from the second crusher is depositedon a third loop idler conveyor 45 and carried to the first loop idlerconvey or 36 and thereby reintroduced into the aggregate processingloop.

It is desirable to use a second glass crusher for the loop processingand keep the primary crush separate. The primary crusher 35 can beadjusted to an optimum speed and setting to handle larger pieces ofglass. Meanwhile, the secondary crusher 43 can be adjusted to an optimumspeed and setting to crush glass slightly larger than 1/2 inch butsmaller than the pieces going into the primary crusher 35.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of the heart of the entirerecycling process: the light/heavy separator. The principles involvedare similar to those of "destoners" used in the mining industry toseparate worthless rocks from valuable ore.

The light/heavy separator 8 comprises a main body 101 supported upondamped spring supports 100 and having vibratory means 102 comprising amotor 103 which causes a wheel 104 to rotate. The wheel has anunbalanced weight 105 such that the whole separator vibrates upon itssupports when the wheel is in motion.

Recyclable materials are dropped from a feed conveyor onto rubber linedintake ramp 107. Materials vibrate down intake ramp 107 onto fingerscreen type grating 108. Small heavy particles, mostly broken glass,fall through the finger screen and down through the fragment chute 109.The remaining recyclables travel down a central ramp 110 to a fluidizingbed 111. The fluidizing bed consists of air forced upwards through aplate having 3/16 inch holes. The separator is supported with the inputopening 106 higher than the ouput opening 121 so that the recyclablematerials move forward when the system is vibrated. The greater theangle of the light/heavy separater, the faster the material will movethrough, hence, to adjust the capacity of the plant requires a simplereadjustment of the light/heavy separater angle of inclination.

Compressed air entering a first air input duct 112 travels through afirst conduit 113 and up through the air grate 111a, thereby blowinglow-density materials such as paper, plastics and aluminum upward andaway on the fluidizing bed 111 from the denser components, mostly glass.

All of these materials then come upon an air knife 114. Compressed airentering a second air input duct 116 travels through a second conduit115 and is forced through the small air knife opening 114a at highvelocity. The sheet of high speed air thus formed carries low-densitymaterials, mostly plastics, paper and aluminum up and over a splittercontrol flap 118 into a rear chamber 120 and out the output opening 121.

The dense materials, mostly glass, are too heavy to pass the splittercontrol 118 and therefore fall down through the heavy materials chute117, having an inputward side 117a. The splitter control 118 is a flapof steel adjustable to a range of angles. In the preferred embodiment,the control also has an extensor flap 119 which can be slid forward toincrease or decrease the gap the light materials must jump.

When the splitter control 118 is swung upward, the flow of low-densitymaterial entering the rear chamber 120 will have less glass contaminatebut at the expense of increased amounts of low-density materialscontaminating the flow of glass and other dense materials emanating fromthe heavy materials chute 117. Likewise, when the flap is brought down,the flow of glass and other dense materials from the heavy materialschute 117 is quite pure at the expense of glass appearing in thelow-density materials stream. The angle of the splitter control flap 118and the degree of extension of the extensor flap 119 must be adjusted bythe operator to generate the most optimal efficiency of separation.

The flow of air and light materials exiting the output opening 121enters an air conduit chamber 122. The chamber has a light materialschute 124 which permits the denser light materials, such as plasticcontainers and aluminum cans, to fall onto a conveyor, while lighterlow-density (ultra-light) materials, such as paper and plastic film, arecarried up an air conduit 123, which serves as conduit means forchanneling a flow of air emanating from the light/heavy separator intothe air pump and filament means, by the air flow to the gravityseparator.

The chamber is fixed in position and is therefore attached to thelight/heavy separator with a flexible membrane 125 to accommodate theseparator's vibrations.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show the structure of the gravity separators, generallylabelled 13. FIG. 5 shows the mirror image structures of the separatorsused in the process of FIG. 2. The gravity separator consists of abox-like chamber 200 built from two half-shells bolted together at aflange 201. An input port 202 receives the flow of air from thelight/heavy separator. Air is dispersed into the chamber by wall 204.output port 203 is connected to an air conduit leading to an air pump.As stated earlier, the air is pumped back into the light/heavyseparator. As with conventional separators of this kind, the deviceworks on the principle that a flow of air will slow down when introducedinto a chamber having a much larger cross-sectional area than that ofthe conduit from which it flows, thereby allowing any particlessuspended in the air flow to settle out. However, this is not enough formunicipal waste since paper and plastic film are so light that even an11×10×10 foot separator such as those used at the Omni plant in LongIsland is not large enough to effect adequate separation to preventJamming of the associated air pump.

This problem is solved by the addition of chain curtains 209 which hangfrom the ceiling of the chamber 200. Each curtain consists of amultitude of individual chains 210 which dangle to within a foot of thebottom of the chamber. Baffles 208 are also provided to spread the flowof air more evenly over the chamber.

As can now be seen, ultralight particles and materials entering thechamber wi 11 eventually be caught by one of the curtains and fall intoone of the four hoppers 205 below. Periodically, a cart is wheeled undereach hopper supported by legs 207, the hatch 206 slid aside, and thelight material collected thereby. The result is that the air exiting theexhaust port 203 contains only superfine ultralight particles and may besafely passed through into the air pump without damaging it. Since theentire air system is a closed loop, the expensive and quickly cloggedfilters that would be needed if the air were exhausted into theatmosphere are eliminated.

Those skilled in the art will perceive myriad variations of theinvention which should be limited in scope only by the claims herein.

I claim:
 1. A recycling process, comprising the steps of:receiving astream of commingled materials; transporting the commingled materialsstream along a conveyer means by vibrating the conveyor means;transporting said commingled materials stream beneath a magnetic beltmeans suspended above said conveyor means and magnetically extractingferrous materials from the commingled materials stream and depositingthe ferrous material at a location away from said conveyor means andleaving a non-magnetic materials stream upon the conveyor means;transporting said non-magnetic materials stream over a finger screendefining apertures of a size effective in allowing small glass particlesto fall through the same, thereby splitting off from said non-magneticmaterials stream a particulate substream comprising small glassparticles; transporting said non-magnetic materials stream across afluidizing bed, said fluidizing bed directing upward a flow of air tolift low-density materials away from dense materials; applying an airknife to said non-magnetic materials stream to split said non-magneticmaterials stream into a dense substream comprising glass, and alow-density substream comprising bulk plastics, aluminum, paper, plasticfilms, and light weight fragments by carrying materials in saidlow-density substream away from the materials in said dense substream ina stream of air; optimizing separation of low-density and densematerials by splitting said non-magnetic materials stream with asplitter control which has been optimized by swinging it up or downthrough an arc, said splitter control having been set in a positioneffective in providing optimal separation of low-density and densematerials; splitting said low-density into an ultralight substreamcomprising said paper, plastic films, and light weight fragments, and alight substream, by slowing said stream of air to a speed effective inallowing said light substream comprising said bulk plastics and aluminumto fall out of said stream of air by virtue of said bulk plastic's andaluminum's greater density.
 2. A method according to claim 1 furthercomprising the steps of:passing the ultralight materials stream througha conduit having a first cross-sectional area, thence into a hollowchamber having a significantly larger cross-sectional area then thefirst cross-sectional area; passing the ultralight materials substreamthrough filaments suspended inside and from a top of said hollow chamberdepending therefrom; catching and filtering out light weight particlesand materials with said filament means; releasing a flow of air out ofsaid hollow chamber; channeling a flow of air from said hollow chamberto an air pump means; channeling compressed air from said air pump meansinto the fluidizing bed and the air knife.
 3. The process of claim 1,further comprising steps of:dividing said dense substream into fourglass substreams, comprising: a first glass substream comprising flintglass; a second glass substream comprising green glass; a third glasssubstream comprising amber glass; a fourth glass substream comprisingreject glass not divided into said first, second, or third glasssubstreams; introducing said fourth glass substream into glass crushingmeans for reducing said reject glass to an aggregate glass particulate;introducing said aggregate glass particulate into a trommel means forextracting glass particles of a desired maximum size; and introducingglass particles of greater than desired size into a second glasscrushing means for forming a recrushed aggregate glass particulate; andreintroducing said recrushed glass particulate into trommel means; andintroducing said small glass particles which were passed through thefinger screen into said glass crushing means along with said fourthglass substream.
 4. A recycling process, comprising the followingsteps:receiving a stream of commingled materials; mechanically splittingsaid materials stream into a plurality of substreams, said mechanicalsplitting comprising: separating ferrous materialsfrom said materialsstream by the following steps: transporting the commingled materialsstream on a conveyor; vibrating said conveyor; and magneticallyextracting the ferrous materials from the commingled material stream andleaving a non-magnetic materials stream by moving a magnetic beltsuspended above said conveyor and depositing the ferrous materials at alocation away from said conveyor; splitting said non-magnetic materialsstream through a light-heavy separator, to split said non-magneticmaterials stream into a dense substream comprising glass and alow-density substream comprising bulk plastics, aluminum, paper, plasticfilms, and lightweight fragments by carrying the materials in saiddensity substream away from the materials in said dense substream in astream of air; said light-heavy separator, comprising: an elongatedhollow chamber having an open input end and an open output end; inputramp means for guiding the non-magnetic materials stream introduced intosaid input end to said chamber; a fragment chute depending from a bottomof said chamber and disposed near said input end of said chamber betweensaid input ramp means and a central ramp means; grating means disposedbetween and contiguously with said input and central ramp means incommunication with said fragment chute for selectively removing smallparticles from the commingled materials stream; fluidizing bed meansdisposed next to and closer to said input end than an air knife meansfor directing upward a flow of air to lift low-density materials awayfrom dense materials prior to their exposure to said air knife means; aheavy materials chute depending from a bottom of said chamber anddisposed closer to said output end than said fragment chute; said heavymaterials chute having an inputward side; the central ramp means forguiding the non-magnetic materials stream from said input ramp means tosaid heavy materials chute; the air knife means disposed at or near alip closest to said inputward side of said heavy materials chute forblowing low-density materials over said heavy materials chute and outthrough said output end of the elongated hollow chamber with a stream ofrapidly moving compressed air, while allowing dense materials to falldownward into said heavy materials chute; a splitter control rotatablymounted within said elongated chamber above and near a second lip ofsaid heavy materials chute, said second lip closest to the output end ofthe elongated hollow chamber, said splitter control comprising a flapextending substantially across the horizontal width of said chamber;said splitter control further comprises an extensor flap slidablymounted to said flap as means for increasing or decreasing a combinedsurface area of said flap and extensor flap; rotational mounted meansdisposed on either side of said flap for allowing a portion of said flapclosest to said heavy materials chute to be swung up or down through anarc to be set in a position effective in providing optimal separation oflow-density and dense materials; an air conduit chamber in fluidcommunication with said output end of the elongated hollow chamber; alight materials chute depending from a bottom of said air conduitchamber; air conduit means for accepting a flow of air from said outputend of the elongated hollow chamber; said air conduit chamber comprisingmeans of removing light materials from said flow of air; vibration meansfor vibrating said chamber and facilitating the flow of materialsthrough said chamber; air pump means for sourcing and sinking acompressed air stream; conduit means for channeling compressed air fromsaid air pump into said light-heavy separator; and additional conduitmeans for channeling a flow of air emanating from said light-heavyseparator back into said air pump means; splitting off from saidnon-magnetic materials stream a particulate substream comprising smallglass particles by passing said non-magnetic materials stream over saidgrating means comprising a finger screen, defining apertures of a sizeeffective in allowing said small glass particles to fall through same;splitting said low density substream into an ultralight substreamcomprising constituents including said paper, plastic films, andlightweight fragments and a light substream by slowing said stream ofair to a speed effective in allowing said light substream comprisingsaid bulk plastics and aluminum to fall out of said stream of air byvirtue of their great density; precipitating said constituents of saidultralight substream in a gravity separation chamber, said gravityseparation chamber comprising: a hollow chamber defining a top, abottom, and sides; input means for receiving a flow of air from aconduit having a cross-sectional area significantly smaller than that ofsaid hollow chamber; output means for releasing a flow of air out ofsaid hollow chamber; and filament means interposed between said inputand output means suspended inside from said top of said hollow chamberand depending to or near said bottom for catching and thereby filteringout lightweight particles and materials carried into said chamberthrough said receiving means by a flow of air; said filament meanscomprising: a plurality of chain curtains each comprising a plurality ofchains suspended in a row across said chamber; and a plurality of airflow baffles disposed inside said chamber; dividing said dense substreaminto four glass substreams, said substreams comprising: a first glasssubstream comprising flint glass; a second glass substream comprisinggreen glass; a third glass substream comprising amber glass; and afourth glass substream comprising reject glass not divided into saidfirst, second, or third glass substreams; introducing said fourth glasssubstream into a first glass crushing means for reducing said rejectglass to an aggregate glass particulate; introducing said aggregateglass particulate into a trommel means for extracting glass particles ofa desired maximum size; introducing glass particles of greater thandesired size into a second glass crushing means for forming a recrushedaggregate glass particulate; and reintroducing said recrushed glassparticulate into said trommel means; splitting off from saidnon-magnetic materials stream a particulate substream comprising smallglass particles by passing said non-magnetic materials, stream over agrating defining apertures of a size effective in allowing said smallglass particles to fall through same; introducing said small glassparticles into said first glass crushing means along with said fourthglass substream; and dividing said light substream into six lightsub-streams comprising: a first light sub-stream comprising natural highdensity polyethylene; a second light sub-stream comprising mixed highdensity polyethylene; a third light sub-stream comprising polyethyleneterepthelate; a fourth light sub-stream comprising aluminum; a fifthlight sub-stream comprising mixed plastics; and a sixth light sub-streamcomprising reject light materials not divided into said first throughfifth light sub-streams.
 5. A recycling process, comprising:receiving astream of commingled materials; mechanically splitting said materialsstream into a plurality of substreams, said splitting comprising:applying an air knife comprising a sheet of high speed air to saidmaterials stream to immediately split said materials stream into a densesubstream comprising glass and a low-density substream comprising bulkplastics, aluminum, paper, plastic films, and lightweight fragments bycarrying the materials in said low-density substream away from thematerials in said dense substream in a stream of air; separating ferrousmaterials from said materials stream prior to applying said air knife.6. A recycling process, comprising:receiving a stream of commingledmaterials; mechanically splitting said materials stream into a pluralityof substreams, said splitting comprising: applying an air knifecomprising a sheet of high speed air to said materials stream toimmediately split said materials stream into a dense substreamcomprising glass and a low-density substream comprising bulk plastics,aluminum, paper, plastic films, and lightweight fragments by carryingthe materials in said low-density substream away from the materials insaid dense substream in a stream of air; dividing said dense substreaminto four glass substreams, comprising: a first glass substreamcomprising flint glass; a second glass substream comprising green glass;a third glass substream comprising amber glass; a fourth glass substreamcomprising reject glass not divided into said first, second, or thirdglass substreams; introducing said fourth glass substream into glasscrushing means for reducing said reject glass to an aggregate glassparticulate; introducing said aggregate glass particulate into a trommelmeans for extracting glass particles of a desired maximum size;introducing glass particles of greater than desired size into a secondglass crushing means for forming a recrushed aggregate glassparticulate; and reintroducing said recrushed glass particulate intosaid trommel means.
 7. A recycling process, comprising:receiving astream of commingled materials; mechanically splitting said materialsstream into a plurality of substreams, said splitting comprising:applying an air knife comprising a sheet of high speed air to saidmaterials stream to immediately split said materials stream into a densesubstream comprising glass and a low-density substream comprising bulkplastics, aluminum, paper, plastic films, and lightweight fragments bycarrying the materials in said low-density substream away from thematerials in said dense substream in a stream of air; splitting said lowdensity substream into an ultralight substream comprising said paper,plastic films, and lightweight fragments and a light substream byslowing said stream of air to a speed effective in allowing said lightsubstream comprising said bulk plastics and aluminum to fall out of saidstream of air virtue of their greater density; dividing said lightsubstream into six light sub-streams comprising: a first lightsub-stream comprising natural high density polyethylene; a second lightsub-stream comprising mixed high density polyethylene; a third lightsub-stream comprising polyethylene terepthelate; a fourth lightsub-stream comprising aluminum; a fifth light sub-stream comprisingmixed plastics; and a sixth light sub-stream comprising reject lightmaterials not divided into said first through fifth light sub-streams.